There was a silver tray resting on one corner of the tub, its surface filled with various luxuries. Bath salts, bubble bombs, bars of expensive hand-milled soap, and bottles filled with shampoos and conditioners. There was also a canister of shaving foam. Zeth held his dagger between his teeth and squirted some of the foam into his hands. Then he carefully smeared it between the woman’s legs, working the rich lather deep into her pubic hair. She flinched slightly as he touched her.
“It tickles,” she complained.
Once her pussy was coated with cream, Zeth washed his hands in the tub and dried them on the sides of his pants. Then he took the knife from between his teeth.
“I need you to stand nice and still for this,” he said. “I don’t want to cut you.”
“I don’t want you to cut me either.”
“So stand still…”
CHAPTER 15
Rona had never been a fan of taking orders, especially not from men. She’d pretty much had her fill of that working at the silk mine. But having a dagger pressed against her skin definitely made her more compliant. And when said blade was touching the most sensitive part of her body… she was willing to do almost anything that was demanded of her.
She just hoped Zeth had a steady hand.
Of course he does, she thought.He’s a Merc.
She wondered how many men had shed their blood on that blade. Dozens? Hundreds? Thousands? And now it was being used to shave her pussy. That thought shouldn’t have turned her on, but it did. She wanted to cover herself to hide her arousal, but she didn’t dare move, for fear of being cut. So she just stood there in the full tub, her body naked and dripping as Zeth dragged the blade across her skin. After a couple of strokes, he dipped the blade into the bathwater to rinse it clean.
“So tell me something,” he said. “Who is Tulliver?”
Rona started in surprise. She was glad Zeth had chosen to ask the question while the dagger was away from her skin, otherwise the result might have been disastrous.
“What?” she gasped.
“You said his name in the alleyway. When you were kicking the man who assaulted you. You said: ‘Fuck you, and fuck Tulliver too.’”
“I’d rather not talk about it,” Rona said.
Zeth looked up at her for a moment, his angelic face genuinely curious. Then he went back to shaving her pubic hair.
“If you tell me about it,” he said, “I’ll tell you something about myself in exchange. Deal?”
Rona started to say she didn’t want to know anything about him, but she held her tongue. For one thing, it wasn’t true. For another, he had a knife to her pussy. And soon, he was going to do things to her that no man had ever done before. She decided it would behoove her to be polite, at least for the time being.
“It’s a long story,” she said.
Zeth smirked. “You’ve got a lot of hair.”
Rona sighed. She supposed it couldn’t really hurt to tell him. If anything, it might help her avoid another unpleasant situation like the one in the alley.
“I used to live here in Jeriko,” she said. “Actually, I was born here. My father left when I was little to go work in the same silk mine where I work now. He wanted my mother and me to stay here in Jeriko because he thought it would be more comfortable than the mining village. I guess he was right. Before I went away, he gave me a knife to protect myself.”
“It wouldn’t happen to have been the same one you stabbed with yesterday,” Zeth asked, “would it?”
Rona tensed. The Merc laughed.
“Don’t worry, woman. I’m not angry about that. If I were going to hurt you, I would have done so by now.”
“Very reassuring,” Rona said. “And yes, it was the same knife. That was the last time I ever saw my father. We got word a few months later that he had died in a mine collapse.”
“Oh,” Zeth said. “I’m sorry.”
“I’m over it. It was a long time ago. Anyway, after that happened, my mother started hitting the bottle pretty hard. Pills too. She had a lot of boyfriends. A lot of creeps. One of them was a guy named Tulliver. He was a local gang leader. I guess he’s small-time compared to some of the people you’ve probably dealt with, but around here he’s not someone to trifle with.”
Zeth rinsed his blade, then continued shaving.
